NICHOLAS SCHROEDER

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Life is elsewhere Ostensibly, the first feature film by Spencer McCall seeks to provide a portrait of a San Francisco organization called the Jejune Institute, whose mission hovers somewhere between the poles of self-help, performance art, disinformation, and an alternate-reality game. But if this is a portrait, we're not in art class anymore.

Workplace creativity "Surface Tension," the fantastic exhibit at SPACE Gallery, is a gorgeous set of oddities, surfaces, and structures, and issues a strong challenge to visual perception using remarkable techniques re-imagining the limits of texture, conception, and color.

Joining disunity Third of four in the UNE Art Gallery's series of Maine Women Pioneers, the curators describe "Worldview" as an exhibit of artists "who are connected to their world . . . inspired by ethics, emotions, and existential holistic themes, as activists, healers, and visionaries." That's a definition with a pretty broad reach

Species Going Distinct Harbored inside walls of burlap cloth draped from the ceiling of the ICA's darkened back room comes the terrific pull of "Bump," the impressive installation of suspended whale bones found and arranged into a sort of mausoleum by Maine brothers Frank and Dan DenDanto.

Looking closely In another look at Portland's growing number of atypical studies within the art world, we spoke to Southern Maine Community College art history professor Christopher Stiegler, founder of the Institute for American Art, a curatorial space he runs from his home on Smith Street in Bayside. This is an edited transcript.

Coordinated states While there's no easy way to tie together the respective art forms of Pat Corrigan and Jennifer Gardiner, the community hub of Mayo Street Arts is a fittingly off-center venue for their latest work, which fuses discrete processes and subjects for a modestly sized showcase.

See and be seen While the PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART is about to wrap its wildly successful Winslow Homer exhibit, something tells me we'll be feeling the various expressions of "Weatherbeaten" for awhile.

Inside the galleries This Friday, the Portland Museum of Art stages the last of this year's Artist Intervention series, a program launched in January 2012 in which local professional artists create on-site performances and installations to complement the visitor experience.